EU mess neither new or strange

Dear sir,The world, in particular the Europeans, wonder why the EU was suddenly in trouble after some highly successful years. It is rather easy to understand. The EU is in the same condition we often find in houses containing freehold flats (condominium apartments) or, as Namibians say, in compounds of town houses.It is all about differing interests – something that is important for the one freehold-flat owner is unimportant to the other; what is beautiful for the third, looks ugly in the eyes of the fourth. Many such buildings grow ‘wild’ and deteriorate after some years; they then look shabby and worn out. No one wonders ‘why’. In Germany, something similar was seen after Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated and the ‘Deutsche Bund’ was established by foreign powers. It was a forced association of 39 sovereign states and almost from the first day on, troubles started; the association was constantly in a jumble, every member did what their thought was right for them. The trouble originated in the fact that there was no ‘Kaiser’ anymore. There was no one, no person, no institution that had the ultimate say and the power to enforce its say.This only changed in 1871 when a German Kaiser was crowned and accepted by all and when the 39 ‘independent states’ surrendered their sovereignty to the German ‘Reich’. Did no one in Europe read a history book before the EU was established? This is the question the people there should ask themselves now.Well, what is happening in Europe is thus not entirely new or strange. And what happened there can happen anywhere where sovereign freeholders try to run a building together without having a formal ultimate power established, a ‘Kaiser’. We Africans have to look at this, too. And we should do that urgently. Otherwise, we could create the same mess too.Rudolf K.ErongoBy email